


Nerves

by Burgie



Category: Star Stable
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-27
Updated: 2016-07-27
Packaged: 2018-07-27 01:45:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7598656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Burgie/pseuds/Burgie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Louisa meets her daughter for the first time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nerves

Once upon a time, Louisa had thought that Jorvik didn’t have hospitals. Though, it made sense when she considered the amount of mages here. But now, she was sitting in a hospital hallway chewing on the side of her thumb.

“Don’t do that,” said Alex, sitting down beside her and grabbing her hand to pull it away from her mouth.

“Sorry,” said Louisa. “I’m just nervous, I guess.”

“Why would you be nervous?” asked Alex, laughing. “You’re not the one in the delivery room. Come to think of it, why aren’t you in the delivery room?”

“Same reason I’m chewing my thumb,” said Louisa with a shrug. She tried to pull her hand back but Alex had it too tightly, so she tried to chew on her other thumb. Alex grabbed that too.

“There’s no reason to be nervous,” said Alex. “It’s not like she’s going to die in childbirth.”

“Justin’s mother did,” said Louisa quietly, looking down at her hands.

“So? That was decades ago. Now, we have more advanced medical procedures and stuff. Lisa would know more about that than I do. Although I’m looking into it,” said Alex, grinning at her friend.

“I bet you are,” said Louisa. “You were so excited when you found out that Lisa could do this. Self-conception, just with some added genes from the other mother.”

“Magic is great stuff,” said Alex, letting go of Louisa’s hand to push some of her hair behind her ear. Louisa heard a particularly loud cry of pain come from the delivery room and pulled her free hand back to her mouth.

“You really do have nothing to worry about,” said Linda, looking up from her book. “I’ve seen it. In every possible future, Lisa survives.”

“But isn’t the future changeable?” asked Louisa.

“Yes but it’s easier now for me to tell when the future is going to remain the same, and this one is,” said Linda.

“You promise?” said Louisa.

“I promise,” said Linda. “Now, stop chewing on your thumb. You’ll make it bleed.”

“You could always be in there holding her hand to keep your hands busy,” said Alex.

“No, I’m too scared,” said Louisa. She laughed. “That sounds pathetic, doesn’t it?”

“What are you scared of?” asked Linda.

“Scared of her yelling at me,” said Louisa. “In all the movies and TV shows…”

“Those are greatly exaggerated,” said Alex. “Trust me. I’ve seen the real ones.”

“She has,” said Anne, finally emerging from the bathroom. “She says it’s just because she wants to be ready for the birth, but you should see her face when she watches them.” As if to prove her point, Alex let go of Louisa’s hand and instead placed both hands on Anne’s slightly-rounded belly. Alex probably didn’t know how much she was grinning, or if she did, she didn’t care.

“That’s adorable,” said Louisa, grinning. “So I don’t have anything to worry about?”

“No, you don’t,” said Linda. “Now, get in there. Unless you want to be around when Alex starts talking to her unborn child.”

“Good point,” said Louisa. She got up, wiped her hands on her jeans, and took a deep breath to steady her nerves before finally crossing the threshold to where her wife was waiting for her. She chewed on her lip a little, but then her lips curved into a grin when she saw the way Lisa was looking at her. She looked so relieved to see her.

“Hi,” said Lisa, but that was the only thing she could say before she had to push again. Louisa pulled a chair close to the hospital bed and took a seat in it, trembling. She hated to see Lisa in pain, but it was for something good. Something good would come at the end of this. A child. Their child. She’d woken up to the sound of Lisa in pain at 5 in the morning, and they’d been here at the hospital ever since. It was now almost twelve hours later.

Louisa took hold of Lisa’s hand, and Lisa twined their fingers together. It was a little uncomfortable with their bony fingers pressing together, and painful when Lisa pressed down on her hand with her fingers, but she knew that it was nothing compared to what Lisa was going through. So she ignored the pain.

“Sing,” Lisa panted. 

“Huh?” asked Louisa, frowning in confusion.

Lisa groaned. “Sing, Aid-een!”

“Right,” said Louisa, and tried to remember Aideen’s song. It had been so long ago that she’d learned it, but she still vaguely remembered. She felt it in her heart- it was her song, after all. Somehow, the singing soothed some of Lisa’s pain. Or at least it made her feel it less. Louisa felt her magic swell as the song swelled, and a white light surrounded her.

“One more push,” said Lisa. “I can feel it.” Her voice was steadier, but she sounded tired now. But she was right- it did take just one more push for their daughter to come into the world. Lisa sagged back into the bed, clearly exhausted, as the first cries of their newborn pierced the air. Louisa thought she heard someone cheering outside, but she ignored it. She only had eyes for Lisa.

“Traditionally the mother gets to hold the newborn, but what do we do in this case?” asked the midwife.

“I’m too tired,” said Lisa with a shaky laugh. “Let Louisa hold her.”

“Are you sure?” asked Louisa.

“Yeah,” said Lisa. “Just hold her carefully. Like you hold a cat.”

“Newborns are not supposed to be held like animals,” said the midwife with a frown.

“You haven’t seen the way my wife holds cats,” said Lisa. She grinned.

“O-okay,” said Louisa. She untangled her fingers from Lisa’s and took her hand back, barely noticing the pain. She was shaking again, but when her daughter was placed in her arms she steadied herself. Louisa smiled down at her baby.

“So, whose name are you going with?” asked Alex. Louisa hadn’t heard her come in, but she’d been a little preoccupied.

“Huh?” Louisa finally managed to tear her eyes away from her daughter to look up at her friend.

“Didn’t you both have ideas for baby names?” asked Alex.

“Yeah,” said Louisa, nodding. “I don’t think she looks like an Elle though, do you?”

“No, and not Eve either,” said Lisa. “Something about Elle though. Maybe…” she yawned “Ellie.”

“Ellie,” said Louisa, trying out the name. “Yeah, I like that. Welcome to the world, Ellie.”

“I’m totally using Eve though,” said Alex. “I mean, not for this one, Anne is adamant that our first child be called Ruth, but maybe for the next one.”

“Alex, give the new mothers time alone with their newborn,” said Anne. “You have my full permission to fuss over Ruth when she’s born, though.”

“Oh, alright,” said Alex. She left the room with a skip in her step, still grinning and giggling.

Louisa looked up from Ellie to see Lisa grinning at her.

“What?” asked Louisa.

“You and Alex,” said Lisa, laughing. “You both looked the same. All goo-goo eyed and with big, sappy smiles.”

“You’d probably look the same if you weren’t so tired,” said Louisa. She looked between her daughter and her wife. “She has your eyes, you know.”

“And your hair,” said Lisa. “Your natural hair colour, I mean.”

“I dunno,” said Louisa, “it looks kinda red to me.”

“That might be blood,” said Lisa. “We’ll find out when she’s cleaned up and dry.”

“Yeah,” said Louisa. “I guess we will.” She almost didn’t want to hand her daughter over to be cleaned up and checked over, but she knew that she had to.

While Ellie was cleaned up and declared to be a healthy baby, Louisa watched her wife fall asleep. She was so glad that Lisa didn’t have nightmares anymore. But just in case, she hummed Aideen’s melody while Lisa slowly fell asleep. She wondered if her daughter would also fall asleep to the melody.


End file.
